Meet Mike, our CEO!

This article originally posted September 4, 2014 on our tumblr blog http://meliorak.tumblr.com/

As Meliora K keeps growing, we have added a new CEO to our team! Get to know him with our Q&A.

What made you want to take on leading a business like Meliora K?My favorite companies I’ve worked for are the ones where you can see the care and desire to help people not only in the stated values of the company, but the fact that everyone believes and works by them. Meliora K truly does want to make the world a better place, one house at a time. Every worker believes that and works each day to help our customers.

What are your qualifications?I graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and I am a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Illinois. I also completed my MBA at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. I spent 10 years in product development, creating new products from medical devices to staplers. I worked on just about everything - including the kitchen sink! I really love the process of making something out of nothing, then seeing the people who use it embrace a product that works and makes their lives easier.

I spent the last few years working in Global Supply Chain, and this will help Meliora K deliver a product faster, better, and at a better price for you!

Can you explain your approach to business?My main approach is that if I know something, my team should know it, too. Secrecy and knowledge hoarding do nothing to help the company. It’s OK if we don’t know the answer or we make mistakes. That’s how you do great things and make a true impact. I want to encourage everyone at Meliora K to take chances and try new things. We can learn and grow from these mistakes in future success.

What can we expect to change at Meliora K with you as CEO?I see a few things changing as we move forward:

Expanded transparency into our business and operations for our customers. You’re a part of this with us. We already share our recipes with you, so we truly have nothing to hide! We’re working on metrics that matter to show how we practice what we preach about sustainability and better living.

Updated products. We’re in the works on some cool things as far as reusable packaging. You’ve already seen the new laundry powder sizes on the site (wait, you haven’t? Go. Look. Now.) and we’re always tinkering with other product ideas to help you around your home.

Expanded Connections with Customers. We’ve got a great group of direct customers via our website. Thank you to you all! But to help better serve you, I’d love to have more places near you where you can pick up products. We’ll be starting near Chicago and expanding into the Midwest and beyond - if there is a store near you you’d like to see carrying our products, let us know! We’ll also be at some more shows and events where we can meet customers in person. VeggieFest 2014 was a HUGE success and I can’t wait to follow-up with more at VeganMania in Chicago this October, as well as other shows in the future.

Improved shopping experience for our customers. We’re still flushing out the details, but some concepts include subscription ordering and a new storefront to allow for you to get great products from Meliora K. to your home as fast and easy as possible.

Lastly, I want to echo the core of Meliora K. – transparency and openness. In addition to sharing our ingredients and how to make great cleaning products, I want to hear from all of you. If you’ve got any feedback about our products, identified awesome new ways to use our soap and powder, or anything else I can be reached in the following ways: